The Park School, Yeovil


The Park School was an independent, co-educational day school, near Yeovil, Somerset, England. It had 250 students from Reception to sixth form and was the only independent school in Yeovil. It had separate Junior, Senior and Sixth Form departments and was located at Chilton Cantelo on the former site of Chilton Cantelo School. The school was placed into administration on April 21st 2020, citing the withdrawal of a loan offer due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the cause.
The final head was Jane Huntington, who was appointed in 2011 following Paul Bate's retirement.

History

The school was founded in 1851 by Mrs Bennet, who was headmistress from 1851 to 1919. It was originally an all-girls school, before becoming a co-educational school in 1991. In 2017 the school acquired the buildings and grounds of the former Chilton Cantelo School and relocated the junior school and boarders in September 2017, followed by the senior school and sixth form in September 2018.

School format

The school was independent, co-educational with a Christian foundation. Founded as an evangelical Christian foundation, before it became a registered charity. Students were predominantly from the local area.

School houses

Students and staff were placed into one of four school houses. Families were always put into the same house. The houses were:
Ashley House was formally changed to Müller following a school referendum in 2014. Head of House, Mr. Richard Coles, suggested that a change of name would be a suitable way to mark the centenary of the start of WW1. The other three houses were named after Christian philanthropists. Ashley, however, was named after Ashley Down in Bristol, which was the location of the George Müller's children's homes. The prefects in the interwar years felt that it was unfitting to have a house with a Germanic name, but still wanted to recognise the work of Müller.